I've never heard of this particular MOD... If I understand correctly, it's only usable after replacing the air filter with a performance one, correct? What effect does the increased air flow have, performance-wise? Noticible? Is this mainly to increase the supercharger whine?

 

Here is an explination for the cowl mod.

http://www.mini-madness.com/index.as...ROD&ProdID=174

or a plce you ca buy it if you want to keep yours stock.

 

Why not just remove the entire panel? That's what you have to do with the Alta kit... Removal = free.

 

A quote from andy@ross-tech.com (included in the Webb Motorsports link): "Actually, this mod would have no effect with the stock airbox in place. The swiss cheese holes are drilled in the back panel. The airbox is still sealed as long as the top is still on it."

So, these are AFTER a new cold air intake, as I understand it. The stock air box sits in front of the partition, right? I guess maybe you could make an air passage from the stock box to the partition. Anybody know?

 

Um... Is the drilled panel not part of the air box? I can't tell from his photos and my car is all the way down in the parking lot...

If the OEM air box is seperate from the divider then yeah, I can see what he's saying....

 

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...79&hg=13&fg=20

This an exploded view of the area. The top of the airbox (02) fits onto the bottom (01) with a seal all the way around.

In this second view http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...64&hg=51&fg=80
Partition, left (22) is the thing we are talking about putting the holes in.

 

here is where I drilled the holes.... did 5 holes in the shape of the 5 one dice. I do not have a stock air box. Its is 3 sided plus the bottom. No top. the top lip goes flush to the hood when closes. The back of the box butts up against the back wall. So the holes are drilled into the stock wall...

I see in the picture posted above a single really big hole... NOTE that when the holes are drilled, you do leave the cowl area open to the outside air. Ok this is the good thing.. sucking in the nice fresh cooler outside air... But this could be bad in areas that get lots of rain.. so if you are in a rainy area, I would recomend doing may be lots of little holes.... adjust hole size and number according to your area.